


Ab Initio

by catalysticskies



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 18:57:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11995956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catalysticskies/pseuds/catalysticskies
Summary: The first time feels like the hardest, because he does not yet know what to expect.





	Ab Initio

Robin can't say he's ever fought a time-traveller before. People who have been in stasis and haven't aged, sure. People who are hundreds of years old, more than once. But an honest to goodness _time-traveller_ is something new, and it's difficult trying to get a grasp on what the guy can or can't do, where his parameters lie. He appears to be a flighter, not a fighter, opting to run when confronted until he realises he can't get away from five League-juniors and a dog bigger than he is, and it is then that he stops, powering up a device in his gauntlet. His arm begins to glow, pale yellow light enveloping the device and its user.

“It's his time machine,” Robin realises, almost too late. He doesn't think about what follows, acting instinctively as he leaps for the villain, aiming for the device to disable or disarm it. It is the blink of an eye after he makes contact, the villain screaming and trying to pull back, Robin's weight pushing him forward and into the concrete. A sharp _crack_ fills the air, a bright flash of light that is almost blinding, and then there is the distinct feeling of every molecule in his body buzzing with energy.

* * *

 

“--Which is exactly why I'm never letting you help me in the kitchen again,” Megan finishes, the mixing bowl in her hand empty but for scrapes of batter along the sides and a wooden spoon in much the same condition being torn out of Wally's hands, to much cry of protest.

_This is wrong_ , Robin thinks, sitting gobsmacked in one of the living room chairs. _This already happened_. Had he been dreaming? Was someone pulling some sort of trick on him? It wouldn't be the first time his memory had been psychically altered, but surely Megan would have noticed something. He can still feel the unsettling itch of power, as though every part of him is vibrating at different frequencies, his ears ringing and his head throbbing and his mind reeling from some unknown trauma or cause.

He throws up on the carpet.

Once he's cleaned up and assuaged the team's concerns over his health, the mission goes virtually the same as he remembers it; Batman calls in with word of a villain who can allegedly hop through time, sends them all to a city in the north-east to follow it up. They find evidence of a strange residual energy in a bank that had just been broken into, then follow it through town until they come to the alley where they first encountered--

" _You_!"

That is the only warning Robin has before the villain is upon him, frenzied and in full attack as Robin fights him off. His team steps in to back him up while he recoils, Kid Flash rushing in to push him off their friend until Megan lifts the villain up, suspending him. He seemed panicked last time, wanting only to get away from them, but this time he's nothing but pissed off. "You've ruined it!" he screams, his eyes set firmly on Robin, who can only stare back dumbfounded. "This is _your_ fault!"

His friends look to him in confusion. He doesn't know what to say. "What do you mean?" Robin asks him, desperate for his own answers but keeping composed, or trying to. " _Time_ ," the man spits out, "You've--"

That is as far as he gets before there is a flash of blinding light, noise rising in Robin's ears and the world seeming to vibrate itself apart, until--

* * *

"--Which is exactly why I'm never letting you help me in the kitchen again."

"What the hell," Robin breathes, cutting off any further argument. They all turn to look at him, surprised and confused, much the same as he is feeling. At least he doesn't throw up this time, but he still gets a spatter of it in his mouth, the foul taste of acid and a whisper of something metallic. "You guys haven't noticed?" They frown, but they don't seem too concerned. Not concerned enough that it appears they understand, anyway.

"Noticed what?" Wally asks, but Robin can only shake his head. He isn't sure enough of what's happening to be able to ask.

"Nevermind."

* * *

 

The villain doesn't attack him this time, instead appearing calmer and more collected as he steps out with hands held up. "Wait," he begins, "Just let me explain something."

"Like what," Wally scoffs, "How much fun you expect to have in jail?"

"Let him talk," Robin mutters, gesturing for the man to continue. Now that he's not at their throats, Robin notices the shattered surface of his gauntlet, the display ominously blank.

The villain nods his thanks. "Firstly, I am Clockwork. I use this device-" He holds up his arm, gesturing to the broken remains of said device. "-to make small jumps through time Or I did, until _somebody_ broke it. This is only the third time around, but I believe you have trapped us in a time loop."

That explains it. At least Robin isn't going mad, yet, but if this loop is indefinite, it may well happen sooner than he hoped. "What sort of time loop? Can you be sure?"

"Dude, you're listening to this guy?" Artemis asks, whispered in Robin's ear loud enough for Clockwork to hear anyway, but Robin just shushes her for now. He needs answers.

"The kind where the same period of time plays out until the catalyst occurs and it resets. I've been working on this tech for years, I'm pretty damn sure."

"What is the catalyst? Why are you and I aware of the loop, but apparently not these guys? Can we break it?" He has to stop himself before he gets carried away, but he is trained to get as many answers as he can out of enemies while they are still being co-operative. It doesn't work so well when he is this beside himself.

Clockwork sighs, checking what appears to be a standard analogue watch on his opposite hand. "We don't have much time left. Meet me in the diner across the street as soon as you can. Preferably alone, so we don't have to deal with the ignorant."

The others bristle behind him, but the flash happens before they can act.

* * *

 

"Tell me everything you know."

Clockwork thanks the waitress who brings him his coffee, the girl seeming confused by their attire but not saying anything about it. "It started when you broke my temporal regulator. Damaging it in the middle of a jump caused an overload of temporal energy with no set direction, and so it has caused the last thirty-eight hours to repeat itself."

"Why thirty-eight?"

"Because thirty-eight hours before the catalyst was my last jump, and the last time my temporal space was properly regulated. You got caught in the blast, which is why you're affected too."

"Of course," Robin mutters, even though there is still much he doesn't yet understand. He'll have to ask Wally later, or in another loop. "We start off at the moment you entered this time period, and get sent back to the moment of the blast each time."

"Precisely." Clockwork takes a long sip of his coffee before setting it aside, rubbing at his eyes. "I hate to say it, but it will probably take some time to figure out how to repair the damage and break the loop, if I even can."

"We can," Robin tells him, firm and convincing. He needs to hear himself say it too. "Besides, at least we have plenty of time to work on it."

"True, but the regulator is bound by its own rules as well. Every time the loop resets the device does too, and we'd be back to square one each time."

Robin narrows his eyes, already trying to formulate a plan to get it done as efficiently as possible. "Then we'll have to be quick."

* * *

He takes a zeta-beam the moment he gets reset, teleporting to the closest receiver near his agreed location with Clockwork, an empty office space on the second floor of a quiet city building. It keeps them away from prying eyes and ears, gives them a place to gather themselves and focus on the task of repairing the device. Clockwork shows him the blueprints of it, explaining how it all works and what components it uses, and while temporal mechanics aren't exactly his forte Robin does his best to keep up.

They are interrupted partway through by a call from Batman, relaying the information of the mission Robin is already in the middle of. "I can't go," he has to tell Batman, feeling terrible about turning him down even though he is doing this for all their benefit.

There is a small but noticeable pause before Batman answers. He isn't used to Robin turning him down. "Why? You're already in the area. Just wait for the team to arrive, then move in on--"

"Mefistofele."

Batman stops. Robin feels awful using that word, but that code-word had been put into place for just such a reason; when they needed one to trust the other with no questions, for when things got serious and they couldn't discuss the details. They've only used it once before now, so they both understand the gravity of the situation. "Alright," Batman finally sighs, "Just. Be careful, Robin."

"I will. Thank you."

* * *

He uses it every time now, saying it each time Batman calls and asks where he is. After the seventh or eighth time it begins to lose its meaning to him, but not to Batman, and so he keeps it up. Clockwork doesn't ask about it, but he does ask about their relationship, what it's like being Batman's protegé. Robin isn't sure what to tell him; he's been asked about it before, but not by someone he has fought against (though lately he has been working too closely with Clockwork to really feel any resentment) and not while he is in such a state.

"It's about what you'd expect," is all Robin ends up telling him, as vague as possible and quick to change the subject. "Tell me more about this chronokinetic amplifier."

* * *

Clockwork likes to make small talk. He will often mutter to himself while he works, something that Robin is used to from years spent with Wally, but often he will turn his attention to Robin, making casual inquiries about his life and his studies and whatever other mundane thing he can think of. At first Robin had been suspicious of it, a known villain prying about his personal life, but the more time they spend together the more he comes to understand that it really is just chatter. Clockwork likes to have someone to talk to, and Robin doesn't so much mind it as long as he is careful about what he says, and so they often converse when they're having lunch in the diner down the block or taking a break in the office room.

It is because of this that Robin's opinion of him begins to change. He tries to avoid forming set opinions on people to begin with, but that's difficult when you're in the heat of battle with a time-hopping thief, so his first views of Clockwork were... not great. The more they talk, though, the more he learns; he discovers that Clockwork was a leading scientist in energy harnessing and application, got kicked out when he started focusing on chronokinetic energy instead and started work on his time machine.

"My daughter," Clockwork tells him when Robin asks why he thought of time travel. "She was killed in an accident that could have been prevented, so I thought that if I could go back, I could save her. Time is not so easy to manipulate, as it turns out."

Robin can't say he's had much experience in this particular field, but he has become fairly educated recently. "It would have created a paradox," he guesses, "Even if it had worked."

Clockwork sighs, absently stirring his tea as he stares wistfully at the diagrams spread across the floor. "Yeah. It's probably a good thing the device isn't perfect. I can only go back in small increments, and jumping too far too frequently makes it unstable. It simply can't hold enough energy to take me far enough back."

Now Robin feels is the best time to ask something that he has been curious about. "So why turn to crime?"

"It pays the bills," Clockwork says easily, giving a half-hearted shrug. "Being a kook scientist doesn't really pay much, and you can't exactly find this sort of equipment at your local hardware store. Petty theft was the easiest way, and time-hopping makes it easier to keep alibis and do bigger heists when I need to. Probably sounds weird to a vigilante hero like yourself, but that's just how it is."

"I guess it does make sense," Robin concedes, "In a villain-y sort of way. There are always other options, though."

Clockwork chuckles a little. "Oh, the naïveté of the young. You have a point though. Maybe this is a sign that it's time to give up the time travel thing."

"Maybe," Robin hums back, and he can only wonder. He hopes he doesn't have to battle Clockwork again in the future, if they ever make it that far.

* * *

The problem with the loop only being thirty-eight hours is that it is few enough that Robin pulls it all at once, getting as much work done as he can until it resets and he is only as tired as he was the first time.

He doesn't remember the last time he slept.

* * *

"Hey, Robin," Clockwork begins quietly, causing Robin to look up from the component he had been studying. "What do you say we just take the next loop off? Y'know, take a day to relax, clear our heads. I need a break from all this."

He wants to keep working, wants to get this done so they can get _out_ , but Clockwork has a point. They have been at it for weeks now, Robin's counter showing him a bleak seventeen (he has to write it down each loop, and he wonders when he will stop counting), almost a full month of doing nothing but this. The blueprints are starting to meld together in his mind, and he's not even sure what they're studying for any more. "Sure," he sighs, "I could use a break too."

* * *

He's missed spending time with his team. He has been so consumed by fixing this that he has almost forgotten what he is fixing it _for_ , the people he wants to live in the present with - the real, linear one, not the present he is forced to live over and over and over again.

He takes two loops off. The first he just follows the act, sits around with his team and bickers and laughs until they get called away to investigate, keeping his mood light because he knows they won't run into trouble because Clockwork won't be there. He doesn't remember the last time he really laughed, either.

The second, he talks to Wally.

He hasn't been impervious to Robin's brooding, as he rarely is when it's this big, but thirty eight hours isn't a lot of time to notice and then discuss, and so nothing has been said. Robin needs to talk to someone though, needs to bounce some of his own thoughts if only to get them out of his head. Maybe it'll free up some space and he'll have an epiphany on the time travel front.

"What's this all about?" Wally asks him once they are out of earshot of the others, nothing but their boots echoing in the wide corridors of the Cave. "Is everything okay?"

Robin sighs, heavy with the weight of everything he has been building up. "I need to come clean about something," he starts slowly, "And I need you to just... trust me."

"You know I do."

It is the conviction in Wally's voice that finally settles his nerves. Wally trusts him, and he can trust Wally, and it is with that reassurance that he finally lays it all bare, explaining everything about his situation and what they've been doing to try and fix it and what he can think to tell him of the device and how _goddamned crazy_ he's been going over this, he needs _out_ , and it is once he begins to lose it that Wally stops him.

"Relax," he says, a hand placed firmly on Robin's shoulder as he tries to remember how to breathe. The warm smile grounds him more than anything, the look in Wally's eyes. "I know you'll find a way out of this eventually. You're the boy wonder, right? It'll come to you."

Robin smiles back, taking Wally's hand in thanks and thinking over those words, hoping they'll hold him together long enough for him to ride it out until they-

And just like that, it comes to him.

* * *

"I have an idea," he blurts out the moment he bursts into the room, Clockwork already settled on the work and nearly spilling his coffee at Robin's sudden entrance, breathless and full of more energy than he has had in weeks. He staggers over to the table and rifles around for a pen and a spare piece of paper, shaky with hope as Clockwork gets up to watch him. "It might not work, I'm still not a total expert on time travel, but it's probably a better shot than what we've been doing."

Clockwork stares as Robin scribbles across the paper, vague drawings by a poor hand that don't make sense without words. "I don't want to get too hopeful here," he begins, squinting a little as Robin vivaciously makes a large circle, "But what are you saying?"

"Instead of trying to fix the existing device and override the timestream," Robin explains, trying to make the idea reach his mouth in an understandable fashion while he gestures widely over his smudged diagram, "We make a new one. We make a machine that lets us harness the energy from the catalyst, and we ride it out to the end instead of trying to bypass the whole thing."

"Utilising the blast's own energy and following its ripple until it dissipates," Clockwork catches on, a beam stretching across his face. He slaps Robin on the back, the room now buzzing with the energy of renewed hope. "Kid, you're a genius! It'll take a little while to reconfigure all my equipment and figure out how to do it without getting blown apart by the energy wave, but it's the best thing I've heard yet. We might just make it out of this after all."

* * *

It takes another five loops to get everything set up, to reconfigure all of Clockwork's equipment to deal with the expected influx of energy and shield them from the brunt of the blast. It's still a risky shot, but it's the only worthwhile idea they've had so far, and after this long they are desperate to try whatever stands even a slim chance. It's difficult getting everything together in time, figuring out what materials they need and where to get them quickly and how to put them together. It does involve breaking into a nearby science facility and 'borrowing' a few tools and materials, but Robin keeps a close eye on what they take and what Clockwork does with them just in case, and he makes a list to reimburse them later, if this works. If it doesn't, well. He doesn't like thinking about the possibilities.

It is at the end of their twenty-fourth loop that they are finally ready, setting up their new device in the spot where they had first battled what feels like an age ago. "How sure are we that this will work?" Robin asks, fiddling with his chest plate. It is supposed to protect him from the radiation of the temporal blast, stop him burning apart or exploding or any other fun thing when they jump into the burst. It doesn't feel very safe, though.

"Do you want an honest answer, or a comforting answer?" Clockwork quips back, finishing off his coding and typing in the instructions on the touchpad on his arm. Robin doesn't reply. "Alright. All we have to do is stand in exactly this spot, and in... four minutes and thirteen seconds, I'll turn the device on, and it should connect with the frequency of the blast and pop us back out in real time."

"Hopefully," Robin mutters, tapping the 'on' switch on his chest plate. He feels a slight tingle in his skin that feels even less safe than potential chronotron radiation, but it's easy enough to purposefully forget about.

"Hopefully," Clockwork echoes back, tapping in the last of his code with a promising sense of finality before he finishes, the device now glowing pale green. He looks up at Robin, who is glad to see that he is not the only one who is nervous. "Any last words?"

"We're not doing that, are we?" Clockwork only raises a suggestive eyebrow. Robin supposes it couldn't hurt. "I guess... It's been pretty interesting, for spending over a month living the same day. You're pretty cool when you're not breaking the law."

He laughs, open and boisterous. "Believe you me, I won't be doing this gig any more. I'm going to hang up the mantle, get an honest job, maybe get in touch with my ex-wife. We'll see how things go."

Robin smiles, hoping for Clockwork's sake that things fall into place for him. "Well, I wish you the best of luck, Clockwork."

"Carter," he corrects, flashing a grin of his own. At first Robin is surprised that he would reveal his identity like that, but he supposes that if he really is hanging up the mantle, he would start going by a more regular name.

Carter's device suddenly starts beeping for their attention, hustling them into gear and reminding them of why they're here. "Oh, this it," he mutters, stepping closer to Robin in the centre of the will-be blast crater. "Hope you're ready, kid. Three, two--"

* * *

The blast is worse when he is standing right inside it. Robin had thought he was getting used to time travel, but this is something new entirely, ensconced in a never-ending field of blinding light and his very molecules vibrating with energy, burning under his skin, pulling him apart and putting him back together again. It feels as though it lasts forever but is also instantaneous, a lifetime in the blink of an eye, everything he has ever seen and done flashing past him until suddenly they are in the empty street again, Robin rolling off of Clockwork and wondering why he was on him in the first place before he remembers his initial attack, the cause for all of this. He and Carter both sit up as they try to catch up with what's happened, Robin's vision swimming nauseatingly as he tries to take it in, the fresh circle of burnt tarmac radiating around them and the faint scent of iron and the taste of acid rising rapidly in his throat. He thought he was done throwing up after time travelling, but this _was_ more energy than usual in a different application, and it has him reeling again. At least it looks like Carter is having trouble keeping his lunch down too, but he actually manages to do so.

"Robin!" someone yells from behind him, and then there is panic, his mind still catching up to his body which is still catching up to this time.

It takes him too long a moment to piece it all together, and it is almost too late when he finally screams, "Wait!"

The team stops dead, grinding to a halt mere inches from beating the daylights out of Carter. "For what?" Connor growls, "He's the bad guy."

Sometimes he wishes they weren't all so jaded, that they were a little more open-minded. He would probably be loathe to let this slide, too, under different circumstances. "Just.. Wait a minute," he huffs, holding a hand up. He is still trying to get his breath back, wiping sick from the corners of his mouth, glancing back to see Carter about ready to bolt, all of them waiting for his call. "He's not our enemy. Not any more."

"That's cryptic," Wally mutters, crossing his arms and looking pretty annoyed. He was probably a little too keen on beating this guy up. "But what the hell does it mean?"

"Trust me," Robin pleads, slowly rising to his unsteady feet, taking off the burnt-out chest plate and dropping it to the ground. It feels far too heavy now, along with the rest of him. Wally steps forward to help hold him up, but he waves it off. "I'll tell you everything later, but for now just go with me on this. Please."

They all share a dubious look with each other, and he feels the odd shimmer in his brain that he always gets when something is shared psychically between some but not others, likely affirming each other's stance on the matter before they act. "We trust you," Kaldur says finally, "So long as you are able to provide a proper explanation later."

Robin gives them a thankful smile as they all begrudgingly settle down, stepping back to give he and Clockwork some space. Robin turns his attention to Carter, who now looks as relieved as Robin feels, realisation having dawned on both of them. "Looks like it worked," he sighs, breathy through the smile on his face.

"Looks like," Carter beams back, taking a step forward to pat Robin on the shoulder. "We did it. God, I don't know what I would have done if it didn't work."

"We don't need to worry about that now," Robin assures, immensely glad himself that they don't. Another day and he might have cracked. "What are you going to do now?"

Carter sighs, standing up straight and glancing at the device on his wrist. "First, I'm gonna get rid of this thing. I don't really want to destroy it, but I don't want to have it sitting around tempting me, so I'll have to. Then, I guess... I'm going to go home."

It's the best answer he could have hoped for. "I wish you well, Carter," he says, and Carter nods.

"You too, Robin. Stay out of trouble," he jokes, and then he turns and leaves, a brief wave thrown over his shoulder as he ambles off to continue his life. Robin sighs, turning back around to face his team, confused and expectant. They might not be glad to have him back, since to them he never left, but he is still glad to _be_ back.

"Come on," he tells them, heading back towards the transporter. "I've got one hell of a debriefing to make."


End file.
